The previous Lulu -- was that the one Teresa Stratas was scheduled to sing but she fell ill and was replaced by Julia Migenes-Johnson (as she was still calling herself then)? Or maybe I'm remembering wrong and they just shared the role.

You're quite right, Barbara. That was when "Live from the Met" on PBS was really live, and we didn't know till we tuned in that evening that we weren't going to see Stratas after all.

Migenes wasn't quite jumping in on TV without notice. She had been scheduled for a performance late in the run, and had not only rehearsed, but actually done the previous performance. All the intermission features (good ones) had of course been pretaped and featured Stratas. (Which I suppose is one reason they aren't included as extras on the DVD that was issued a few years back.)

That run was the first time the Met did the complete 3-act Lulu. Berg's widow had suppressed Act III for several decades, and the production had premiered a few years before in the then-inevitable 2-act format, but had been designed so that it could eventually be revived in complete form, whenever that became possible. And so it turned out.

Did anyone see Otello? I had to miss it (and bridge as well) because my retinal surgeon gave me a shiner you wouldn't believe. Swollen, bruised, lower lid drooping down on my cheek, no white showing in that eye -- just a reddish black. I can't go anywhere without dark glasses or I'd frighten the children. So, back to the question: did anyone go? How was it?

A simple procedure, really...a steroid shot into the eyeball, to counteract swelling caused by my diabetes. I've had these steroid shots before; they were unpleasant but not disabling. But this last one was an increased dosage and it wiped me out.

I went to Tannhäuser by myself; I couldn't talk anyone into going. It turned out I was one of an audience of fourteen people -- five men and nine women. Not a young person in sight.

There's a lot of Wagner I just plain don't get, but no matter how many times I hear that Overture, it still gives me gooseflesh. A long wait to Abendstern, the opera's one sure hit tune. (When I was in high school I memorized the words of that aria, which took some doing since I hadn't started studying German yet.) The Venusberg looked like scrubland, but the Hall of the Wartburg was magnificent. James Levine conducted from his wheelchair, so obviously happy to be there but not looking well at all. Johan Botha has a beautiful voice, so flexible and distinctive. He sounds even better when you close your eyes. The three leads collectively could stand to lose 400 pounds.